One of the articles on a news website very candidly put something like this, "India go to England, get white-washed. Few months later, England come to India and get white-washed.". The fact of the matter is the quality of current generation international cricket players have fallen down drastically over last decade and half. This has got more to do with game being increasingly designed for commercial benefits. The moment you put a batsmen out of his comfort zone in some away conditions,more often than not, he falters, be it against pace/bounce or spin.Cricket is already a very small game globally and this apparent decline in the standard of International cricket is not only saddening but also paints a very bleak picture of cricket as a global sport.
Add to this, the pitches worldwide are being made to suit batsmen more than the bowlers and this is done in view of lucrative TV rights because public wants to watch cricket match dominated by bat more than the ball. Also hectic pace of current day lifestyle means authorities are more inclined to host T20 and ODI matches to cope with short attention span of present day cricket audience. Due to unresponsive pitch conditions, bowlers and captains go on defensive trying to keep scoring in check. This leads to fast and spin bowler losing their basic attacking skill-set and try to invent newer tricks which only enables them to keep runs down, not take wickets. We already don't have any bowlers in the rank of McGrath, Pollock, Wasim, Waqar, Walsh, Murali, Warne, Kumble, Saqlain who always looked to take wickets regardless of whatever forms of game they played in whichever part of the world. Who is going to replicate international success of these bowlers ? Who is gonna be the next McGrath or Murali or Wasim ? Few names come to mind when you try to search for the answer to the question. International cricket is already poorer after these guys hung their boots.
What the heck, the players don't have time to go back to nets or domestic cricket and rectify any mistake with their batting or bowling. One series over, next one starts right next week. This is particularly true in case of Indian cricketers who play all 12 months of the year. In India, if you switch on the telly, you see Indian players in some color or the other, on some channel or the other and this circus goes on round the year. Most of this round-the-year circus are so meaning-less and context-less that most of the fans don't care to remember them after they are over. It appears as if the cricket board's job is to keep all the cricket-specific channels running round the year. The cricket boards and TV producers are happy as long as they get their coffers full. Audience is happy as long as they get to watch cricket 24*7 on TV. It seems neither the players nor the quality of the game is cared about anymore.
I'm particularly miffed with BCCI and ICC for the current state of the game.
I love this game so much, and now it's like, the more I watch it, the more disillusioned I get. I used to be a fanatic follower of Indian cricket, but not anymore. I have stopped watching Indian players on TV because there is nothing new they do that inspires me. They win at home, they lose away, pretty familiar sight..seems like we have gone back to pre-Ganguly era of Indian cricket.The current catch-phrase in IND-ENG matches is 'ABJECT SURRENDER'. Indian media used it in Jul-Aug this year. Now British media has used it in October.
ICC, CA and CSA are dancing to financial tune of BCCI and they already have shortened on-going AUS tour of SA to accommodate Champions League T20.
Any cricket fan who has watched AUS-SA rivalry before or who is following current AUS-SA series now will note the difference in quality of contests as compared to India's tour of England or England's tour of India. At least some semblance of quality cricket is served by current AUS-SA series (I'm following it very keenly), howsoever shortened that may be.
They say when money speaks, everything else remains silent. Sadly cricket is dying a slow death at its hand.